What were these aircraft doing?

Ok, firstly let me say I have no clue what type of jets these two planes were. Though I can say they were passenger planes.They were the same plane and appeared to have a grey underside.

I saw them at about 12.00 GMT over my house which is in a village called Finedon, England. (Perhaps the time and location will help)

I was just standing out in my garden when I looked up to see if any dark clouds were coming and I saw to passenger jets very low. (Normally a passenger jet would appear about 3-4mm or so from nose to tail; these appeared over 1cm in size. All rough estimates of course.) Not only were they very low they were extreemly close, so close in fact that it appeared even some bad turbulence could push one plane into the other.

They were also both in formation with the second plane to the left and slightly further behind.


I don't think there is any conspiracy here, but I have never seen planes fly like this before and I'm interested to know what it was.

Oh and if this is in the wrong place could a mod please move it.



[edit on 17-4-2008 by umbr45]

Only thing I can think of is one was checking the other "by request " to see if the landing gear was operational.

Or some part of the plane needed a look-see.

That was a first thought, but they seemed dangerously close.

Another family member said it may be the prim ministers plane as he would have an escort, though I don't know if the timing fits and another passenger jet seems a strange escort.


Perhaps i should add that the jets being so low is rather strange as there are no public airports close enough to warrant them being that low. There are some military airports dotted around this area however.

Could they have been refueling? Though I would think this would be done at a higher altitude.
KC-135 Caught Refueling C-5 Galaxy in Mid-Air in Google Earth

I don't think so, firstly they were the same plane. And secondly they were not in that formation.

It was like a very close wedge formation.

hi there,

my friend rang me from Kettering today, he also saw these planes.

he thinks they were an E-3 sentry and also the PM`s plane.according to him they were lying very close to each other.

snoopyuk

Ah thankyou. Though it does seem a rather odd formation to fly, I can come up with reasons for doing so.

I want to ask this quesiton again, as Gordon Brown is still in America, it seems unlikely it would have been his plane in convoy.